Delta Under Fire For Troop Baggage Fees

Delta Air
Lines hastily changed its baggage fees for troops Wednesday after a YouTube
video showed soldiers complaining that they had to pay $200 a piece to check
extra bags as they made their way home from Afghanistan.

The video was posted Tuesday and was viewed almost 200,000 times before it
was removed by the person who put it up. By Wednesday afternoon, the Facebook
page Boycott Delta for Soldiers had sprung up, and the airline was backpedaling
and apologizing to the soldiers.

In the video, „Delta Airlines Welcomes Soldiers Home,“ two Army
staff sergeants say their unit was told it would cost $200 a piece to check a
fourth bag on a Tuesday morning flight from the Baltimore-Washington airport to
Atlanta –
a total bill of more than $2,800.

The Defense Department typically reimburses such costs, which the soldiers
may not have known. But they made their displeasure known, and the
public-relations damage to Delta was done.

In the video, one sergeant, Robert O'Hair, wearing a camouflage uniform and
sitting inside the plane, says his fourth bag was a weapons case containing an
M4 carbine rifle, a grenade launcher and a 9-millimeter pistol that he had used
in Afghanistan.

„The tools I used to protect myself and Afghan citizens while I was
deployed,“ O'Hair says.

With a bite to his voice, the other sergeant – Fred Hilliker of Allendale,
Mich. – closes the video: „Good business model, Delta. Thank you. We're
actually happy to be back to America. God bless America. Not happy, not happy at
all. Appreciate it. Thank you.“

Policy changed

Initially, Delta apologized to the soldiers but didn't change its policy.

As the storm of online complaints about the incident grew, the airline posted
a blog item Wednesday saying fourth bags will now be free for troops traveling
in economy class and five bags will be free for those traveling in
business class.

In a blog post, Delta said it regretted „that this experience caused these
soldiers to feel anything but welcome on their return home.“ Airline officials
declined to answer further questions.

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